For a number of years lipolytic enzymes have been used as detergent additives to remove lipid or fatty stains from clothes and other textiles.
Thus, the prior art suggests the use of various microbial lipases as detergent additives. Examples include lipases derived from Humicola lanuginosa (also called Thermomyces lanuginosus, EP 258 068 and EP 305 216), Rhizomucor miehei (EP 238 023), Candida antarctica (EP 214 761), various species of Pseudomonas such as P. alcaligenes and P. pseudoalcaligenes (EP 218 272), P. cepacia (EP 331 376), Bacillus, e.g. B. subtilis (Dartois et al., (1993) Biochemica et Biophysica Acta 1131, 253-260), B. stearothennophilus (JP-A 64-74992) and B. pumilus (WO 91/16422).
For commercial production of enzymes such as lipases, it is preferred to express the enzyme in a suitable host organism for higher yield. Various expression systems are available, including expression of enzymes from Ascomycetes in Aspergillus (EP 238 023).
Many detergents are alkaline with a high pH in solution (e.g. around pH 10), so there is a need for lipolytic enzymes with high activity at high pH. The lipolytic enzyme should be derived from a type of microorganism for which suitable expression systems are available.